Dakota Country Magazine October 2016 Edition - Page 24

September 1994
Lake Sakakawea Forage Update
Plans for lake herring stocking on hold
L
in Saskatchewan put a
crimp in spawning operations there.
Actually cisco were
already present in
Sakakawea, but the
idea was to increase
their numbers enough
to get them established
more quickly. Ft. Peck
Reservoir above Sakakawea has had a good
population of cisco for
many years, and a large
3-year stocking program of cisco took place
on Lake Oahe in South
Dakota a few years go.
Unlike smelt, cisco
are fall spawners, altho ugh their eggs don’t
hatch until the following
spring.
For now, no cisco
eggs will be sought.
“Cisco are showing
up in greater numbers
in Sakakawea than ever
before,” said fisheries
chief Terry Steinwand.
“It seems to be coming
on. If the trend continues as it is, it’s on track
as if we would be stocking them ourselves.”
Increasing cisco
numbers have been
showing in game and
fish nets through the
summer in Lake Sakakawea, moreso than
ever before, biologists
say. For that reason,
Steinwand said acquiring cisco just doesn’t
appear to be a necessary more right now.
He also talked down
the economic expense
of making the trip to
Canada to acquire the
eggs if it isn’t necessary,
in addition to opening
North Dakota to further
possible criticism for introducing a non-native
fish to the state. This,
he said, if it occurred,
would be on a national
level, not just local.
“Filling that empty
niche just isn’t a valid
theory anymore,” he
said of stocking cisco.
“We’re not immune
here in North Dakota to
criticisms for things like
that.”
In addition to the
improvement in the
cisco population, other
forage has dramatically
improved in Lake Sakakawea with the rising
water level. Officials
also cited nearby Lake
Audubon as experiencing a sharp increase in
Prairie Recall
ast year at
this time,
the North
Dakota
Game
and Fish
Department was
making plans to acquire
up to 10 million cisco (lake herring) eggs
for stocking into Lake
Sakakawea. The forage fish were needed,
officials said, to add
another food source to
the big lake in view of
reduced water supplies
and a sometimes erratic
population of smelt and
other forage.
Those plans were
interrupted by Mother
Nature, when high water flows from the Fort
Qu’appelle Reservoir
Dakota Country Staff Report
Page 24, Dakota Country, October 2016
www.dakotacountrymagazine.com